We offer two plugins which allow website administrators to feed event information from the UConn Events Calendar onto UConn websites.

UConn Events Calendar List View

A list-based view of upcoming events, including the event title and date. Location, time, and event summary are optional. Admins can define the number of events to display.

UConn Events Calendar Grid View

A grid view of upcoming events with an emphasis on the event image for visual impact. Currently, the plugin automatically displays 4 columns and 4 rows of events. Website visitors can reveal additional rows with a maximum of 25 rows (or 100 events). In the future, website administrators will be able to specify the number of columns and rows to display.

Adding Events to Your Website

There are two ways to utilize the plugins: Widget or Shortcode.

Widgets allow site administrators to add stylized content and/or functionality to their website in a simple and easy-to-use way. Widgets typically present the user with options to select or fill out, then the widget uses this information to insert content on your site.

How to Add the Widget to Your Website

The most common way to add widgets in Aurora is through the SiteOrigin PageBuilder. If PageBuilder is active on your Aurora website, select [Add Widget].

Next, select the [UConn Events Calendar Widget].

Select Edit on the widget to configure your options and display events on your website.

Filters

Filters include:

Event Calendar(s)
Event Type(s)
Audience(s)
Campus(es)
Tag(s)

Filters in the widget behave in the same way as the filters on events.uconn.edu (see the Find Events section on the right side of the page).

Filters from the same category will be treated as “OR” combinations, but filters from different categories are combined with an “AND.”
When online events are selected in the event types filter, any non-online events are ignored. Events marked as “hybrid” events are considered to be both online-events and in-person events.

Multiple values can be selected in any of these filters.

To select multiple elements in a list (event types, audiences, campuses):
- On Windows: Hold down the control (ctrl) button and click multiple items in the relevant list
- On Mac: Hold down the command button and click multiple items in the relevant list
In the tags field, enter in valid tag(s) separated by a pipe character |
The pipe character can be found on your keyboard, above the enter key and below the backspace key.
You will have to press this key together with the shift key to render the pipe character.

Valid tag(s) can be found by visiting events.uconn.edu and clicking “Show” next to the Tags header on the right side of the home page, below the Find Events filters. A full list of the Tags will be available soon.

Maximum Number of Events to Display

If left empty, a maximum of 4 events will be displayed.

Note that this value is for the maximum amount of events to be shown, not the total. Less events will be shown if less events are available after all filters have been applied.

View Attributes

View-related attributes include:

Hide location
Hide time
Hide summary

By default, all of these attributes are set to false, meaning that all of these elements are visible unless explicitly turned off (via toggling the checkboxes).

Please note that not every event in the system has a location, time, and/or summary. So, even if you opt to show these fields, they will not appear on events that do not have them.

No Events & Fallback Behavior

These options determine the behavior of the widget if your selected calendar(s) and their filters do not return any events.

Use a fallback calendar
- If you opt to use a fallback calendar, then events from your fallback calendar will be included in the widget in the event that your specified calendar(s) and any applied filters do not contain the “maximum number of events.”.
- Additional filters (ex. audience, event-type, etc) are not applied to fallback calendars.
No events message
- This message will be displayed if any of the following are true:
  - The specified calendar(s) (and any applied filters) contains no events and you are not using a fallback calendar.
  - The specified calendar(s) (and any applied filters) contains no events, you are using a fallback calendar, and the specified fallback calendar contains no events.
- The message will link out to whatever URL is in the “No Events Link” field.

Shortcode

In Aurora (WordPress), shortcodes are small bits of code, indicated by brackets, that allow site administrators to execute functions or behaviors without actually writing code.

How to Add Shortcode to Your Website

In Aurora, there are three ways that you can edit a page or post – Visual Editor, Text Editor, or Page Builder.

When using the Visual or Text editor, you can directly type or paste your Events Calendar shortcode into the available space.

When using the Page Builder, we recommend adding a Visual Editor widget. The shortcode can then be added via the Visual or Text view.

Shortcode for All UConn Events

The most basic implementation of the events calendar shortcode is [uc-events].

Adding this shortcode to your website will feed the next 4 events from the UConn Events Calendar, regardless of which calendar they appear on.

Additional attributes can be added to customize and filter the events that are displayed.

The shortcode behaves in the same way as the widget when it comes to filtering events, modifying the view, and determining behavior in the case of no events/insufficient number of events.

Filter Attributes

The UConn Events Calendar Plugin allows users to filter by:

Attribute	Attribute Type	Default Value	Shortcode Example	Helpful Resources
calendar	string	All Events	[uc-events calendar="The Benton \| School of Fine Arts"]	Calendar Directory
event-type	string	By default, this filter is not applied.	[uc-events event-type="Art & Performance"]	Event Types
audience	string	By default, this filter is not applied.	[uc-events audience="Prospective Students"]	Audiences
campus	string	By default, this filter is not applied.	[uc-events campus="Storrs"]	Campuses
tag	string	By default, this filter is not applied.	[uc-events tag="Research"]	Tags A full list of the Tags will be available soon.

Each filter type has its own unique set of values. To check the most current values for each filter, visit events.uconn.edu and view the corresponding fields in the Find Events section.

When entering in values for these attributes, you must input the values exactly as they appear in the dropdowns or Tags list, including punctuation and spaces.

Each filter can accept multiple values. They must be separated by a pipe symbol |

Example

[uc-events calendar="Center for Career Development" event-type="Online Events | Conferences & Speakers | Career & Professional Development"]

Additional Attributes

Attribute	Attribute Type	Default Value	Shortcode Example
max-number-of-events	integer	4	[uc-events max-number-of-events="8"]
hide-location	boolean	false	[uc-events hide-location=true]
hide-time	boolean	false	[uc-events hide-time=true]
hide-summary	boolean	false	[uc-events hide-summary=true]
safe-fallback	boolean	false	[uc-events safe-fallback=true]
fallback-calendar	string	All Events	[uc-events safe-fallback=true fallback-calendar="Athletics"] To use this attribute, you must also set safe-fallback to true.
no-events-message	string	No events are available at this time. Please see the UConn calendar for events in other departments.	[uc-events no-events-message="We are sorry, but there are no relevant events available."]
no-events-link	string	https://events.uconn.edu	[uc-events no-events-link="https://events.uconn.edu/benton/all"]

The same rules/behaviors apply to these attributes as outlined in the Widget section above.

Shortcode Examples

Shortcode	Description
[uc-events calendar="The Benton \| Connecticut Repertory Theatre"]	Shows events from the Benton calendar and events from the CRT calendar (or, in other words, events that appear on either the Benton calendar OR the CRT calendar).
[uc-events event-type="Conferences & Speakers \| Student Activities"]	Shows all events that are categorized with event type “Conferences & Speakers” or “Student Activities.”
[uc-events calendar="Center for Career Development" event-type="Online Events \| Conferences & Speakers \| Career & Professional Development"]	Shows online events from the Center for Career Development calendar that are marked with event type “Conferences & Speakers” or event type “Career & Professional Development.” In other words, it will show only online events categorized as “Conferences & Speakers” OR online events categorized as “Career & Professional Development” within the Center for Career Development calendar.
[uc-events calendar="Center for Career Development" event-type="Student Activities \| Training & Workshops" audience="Graduate Students \| Undergraduate Students"]	Shows events on the Center for Career Development calendar that fall into any of the following categories: Events that are intended for graduate students AND are categorized as either Student Activities OR Trainings & Workshops Events that are intended for undergrads AND are categorized as either Student Activities OR Trainings & Workshops
[uc-events calendar="The Benton" safe-fallback="true" max-number-of-events="12"]	In this example, the code will show up to 12 events from the Benton’s calendar. If the Benton’s calendar does not have any events available, then events will be pulled from the fallback calendar (since safe fallback is set to true). Since no fallback calendar is explicitly stated, “All Events” will be considered to be the fallback calendar.
[uc-events calendar="The Benton" safe-fallback="true" fallback-calendar="School of Fine Arts" max-number-of-events="12"]	In this example, the code will try to show 12 events from the Benton’s calendar. If there are only 4 events happening at the Benton, then only those 4 events will be shown; additional events will not be pulled from the School of Fine Arts calendar. If the Benton’s calendar does not have any events available, then up to 12 events will be pulled from the School of Fine Arts. If the Benton and SFA calendars both do not contain any events, then the no events message/link will be shown. Since the no events message/link are not explicitly set, the default values for those attributes will be used.
[uc-events calendar="The Benton" no-events-message="The Benton has no scheduled events. Please visit the main events calendar to see other Art & Performance events." no-events-link="https://events.uconn.edu/all/categories/Art%20%26%20Performance "]	This example contains a custom no events message and no events link. If there are no events at the Benton, then the page will display a linked text message (“The Benton has no scheduled events. Please visit the main events calendar to see other Art & Performance events.”)